The growing trend of drinking water out of disposable plastic water bottles is a huge sustainability problem and we need to take action now in order to begin eliminating this problem. Disposable plastic water bottles are a major source of plastic waste. Petroleum products must be used to manufacture these bottles which is increasing the depletion rate of our fossil fuel so it can no longer be used to produce energy. There are also very large travel costs associated with plastic water bottle delivery. Transportation of water bottles all over the country and even between countries does not come without large emissions increases and therefore contribution to global warming. There are some things that can be done to start lowering our dependence on disposable plastic water bottles. A great place to start is to raise awareness among younger generations and eliminate them from college campuses. To properly develop a solution, the problem of plastic water bottle consumption must be fully analyzed.

Disposable plastic water bottles are harmful to the environment for many different reasons. They require a lot of petroleum to produce and the creation process emits a large amount of pollution into the atmosphere. “Plastic water bottles produced for U.S. consumption take 1.5 million barrels of oil per year, according to a 2007 resolution passed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. That much energy could power 250,000 homes or fuel 100,000 cars for a year, according to the resolution” (Gashler, 2008). With the dwindling supply of fossil fuels, we cannot afford to waste so much of this resource on something so expensive and unnecessary. “Many of the most common brands, like Aquafina and Dasani, are essentially filtered tap water, costing us about 5 cents per ounce versus 1 cent per gallon for municipal tap water” (Pockrass & Pockrass, 2009). The water in the plastic bottles is not any better than the water coming from the average tap in the United States and is not economical at all as the following link shows:
http://www.ecosuperior.org/upload/images/backtotap_waterfor5dollars.jpg
Any use of plastic bottles is a complete waste, especially when they are not even recycled. The following link can provide more information on the amount of recycled plastic bottles against the amount of material thrown in the trash:
http://www.grinningplanet.com/2004/10-05/pet-plastic-bottle-recycling-graph.gif
Many people just throw these bottles in the trash so they can be taken away and will no longer be their problem. However, as Pockrass put it, “there is no ‘away,’ and that all that stuff we throw away must actually be managed somehow, for a very long time, either in our landfills, our oceans or in our atmosphere” (Pockrass & Pockrass, 2009). This waste is piling up and the resources are unusable. At the same time, we are making more and more bottles which uses more and more oil. Recycling helps with this issue but the only way to really fix the problem is to stop using the disposable plastic bottles all together.

One way to start this trend to eliminate disposable water bottles is to ban them from college campuses. This has been done very recently at a few colleges in the United States with promising results. The following link can provide some more information regarding the effects of water bottle elimination at a few of the pioneering campuses:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/story/2011-09-14/water-bottle-ban-colleges/50404182/1
It has also been done by cities for various reasons. “Some cities, including San Francisco, Albuquerque, Minneapolis, and Seattle, have banned city purchase of single-serve bottled water because of waste impact from the bottles and because it's viewed as an unnecessary cost to taxpayers” (Gashler, 2008). This can be a great way to spread awareness about the problems associated with disposable water bottles and show how easy it can be to move away from our reliance on them. Colleges are trend setters around the country because such a large population is involved in them or affected by them. Every student on campus could be issued a reusable water bottle that they can carry with them at all times and throughout their entire time at the school. The school would need to install water filling stations at convenient locations so that students could fill their water bottles with ease and therefore not feel the need to revert back to disposable water containers. The dining halls and food courts around campus could stop selling other bottled soft drinks as well. They could buy these products in bulk and fill the students’ water bottles instead, similar to the typical fountain drink, but with a reusable container rather than a paper or plastic cup. This may seem inconvenient and there would likely be some resistance from portions of the student body. However, people need to realize how troubling our situation actually is and start taking action to turn it around now. If we all make small sacrifices in our lavish lifestyles, we can begin to solve some of our largest environmental problems. Eliminating disposable water bottles is a great place to start.